Liverpool FC: Kolo Toure Takes Blame For West Brom goal, Says He Will Learn From This

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Kolo Toure admits he was left hugely disappointed by his error that allowed West Bromwich Albion to claim a point in Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Liverpool and has received Rodgers’s backing again through the manager’s latest comments.

Liverpool were leading the game thanks to a strike by forward Daniel Sturridge. It looked like the Reds would be taking the three points from the match, but the free signing of the summer Kolo Toure, misplaced a pass across the edge of his own area in the 67th minute, which enabled West Brom’s substitute and ex-Everton player Victor Anichebe to net an equalizer for the hosts.

“It was a terrible pass by me. You have to make the right decisions and today I took a bad decision. It was my call. I should have passed to one of our players but instead I passed it straight to the striker.

“I just didn’t see him [Anichebe]. I should have played it to Aly on the side. I wasn’t surprised to get the ball from Simon because that’s the way we play.

“I made a very bad pass. I don’t know why I passed the ball into the middle of the pitch, it was crazy. I’m disappointed for me and the team. It’s hard to take, especially for me, because we played well. It’s difficult to say what we have been talking about in the dressing room but the manager knows how disappointed I am. My pass put the team in a difficult situation.”

The draw meant that Liverpool moved only two points ahead of fifth-place Everton tight Premier League table. The ex-Arsenal and Manchester City player felt that the Reds had done enough to take all the three possible points in the match:

“It was a tough game but I thought it was a good performance. We should have won the game 1-0. We have missed an opportunity after United and Tottenham dropped points but the season is long. We just need to avoid these kind of mistakes. When you make mistakes it’s important to bounce back and play better. I’ve made a few mistakes in my life and I’m still learning every day. I will learn from this.

Liverpool’s manager, Brendan Rodgers, had come out and defended the player in his post-match interview. He has now come out and spoken about Toure’s devastation about his mistake:

“Kolo is devastated, bless him. I said to him that sometimes it is the price you pay when you try to play football. He shouldn’t have received the ball in the first place (from Simon Mignolet).It wasn’t the time to receive it, but that is a part of our learning.

“I’ve said to the team that we are in the position we are because over the last 18 months we have shown the courage and bravery to play football, and part of that is to build the game from behindFor the first time this season we got punished for that. Kolo is an experienced guy and he knows it was a mistake and he is devastated.

“There is no blame. He has misplaced a pass and unfortunately it has cost us two points”.

Whether Liverpool will look at it as two points dropped, or a point gained, we would only assess at the end of the season. However the club’s second half performance was not up to the mark and guiding all the fault of the lack of victory to Toure’s mistake would be of erroneous nature.